Deepcool GamerStorm Genome II Review

Liquid-cooling has come a long way in recent years, both in terms of what's on offer from all-in-one (AIO) liquid coolers and off-the-shelf components for building custom loops. In general they're easy to install, but it can still be a fiddly process compared to a small tower heatsink. Case manufacturers haven't really come up with many ways of dealing with these issues, apart from making the spaces you can install things such as radiators a little larger and including mounts for pumps and reservoirs.

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Deepcool has taken the bold move of removing all that fuss with the Genome II - a combined case and AIO cooler, which features one or two tweaks over the original Genome. The case itself is a fairly standard affair, except for a few noteworthy items. Most obviously, there's a large hole in the front panel that offers a home to an illuminated reservoir. We say reservoir in the loosest sense of the word as it doesn't really function as a reservoir. The green tubes are the only areas that the coolant passes through, which is a bit of a shame as the glass reservoir tube is actually very well made and is just asking for some bubbling, coloured coolant.

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We guess this is to preserve the coolant for a long life span, and the tubes do still look great through the glass. It's illuminated from the sides using two white LEDs too, although these aren't particularly powerful - despite Deepcool claiming they've been made brighter in the Genome II - and are only visible in a dark room. The case feels like it would otherwise retail for around £50-60. It's sturdy enough thanks to the steel construction, but the plastic panels are a little tinny and only the PSU has a removable dust filter.

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There are some notable perks, though, including an external switch for the lighting system, large vents in the roof that are much more substantial than those we've seen recently in certain Phanteks, Be Quiet! and Corsair cases, which is good news given there's a large radiator in the roof. Other interesting additions we'll get to over the page and are internal.

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It's fairly compact at just over 500mm tall and deep and is 210mm wide, but still has room for ATX motherboards plus GPUs up to 330mm in length thanks to a modified internal panel compared to the original case. The rest of the exterior is made up of a standard windowed side panel, slot-vented front section and a roof-mounted front panel sporting the usual power, reset, USB 3.0 ports and audio jacks.